The present invention relates to systems and methods for computational medical devices able to be used in conjunction with dynamic body systems. Such systems and methods provide for a fuller characterization between interrelated body systems, such as the cardiovascular system and cerebrospinal system, for example. Through these better understandings of interrelationships between dynamic systems, more successful diagnostic and therapeutic measures may be employed.
The cerebrospinal fluid flow has two components. A bulk flow from the production and absorption of cerebrospinal fluid and a pulsatile/oscillatory flow from influence of the cardiac cycle on the bulk flow. Also, there are respiratory and body positional influences on the cerebrospinal fluid flow.
With every heartbeat, a volume of blood enters the brain via the carotid and vertebral arteries, causing the brain to expand in the skull, which is a fixed container. This forces Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) out of the cranial cavity into the spinal subarachnoid reservoir, until diastole when the CSF is reversed. The CSF dampens the oscillations of the brain preventing injury. But in some Central Nervous Systems (CNS) injury and disease, the CSF production is diminished, so the pulse pressure (difference between systolic and diastolic pressures) can itself become an injurious process, the so-called pulse pressure encephalopathy.
Generally, bulk flow is better understood by those skilled in the art than pulsatile flow. As such, guidelines for therapeutic dosages and cerebrospinal volume alterations are very narrow to avoid undue pressure and potential harm to the patient.
By better understanding the relationship between the cardiovascular and cerebrospinal systems (or other interrelated dynamic system), larger volumes of intrathecal drug dosages can be applied safely. Likewise, medical professionals can use such an understanding of system relationships to more safely exchange and filter CSF. Further, such characterizations enable less invasive treatment of obstructions including unstable plaques, safer catheter based navigation of a wide variety of anatomical pathways, and the facilitation of local drug delivery in circumstances where there is pulsatile fluid flow.
Unfortunately, there currently are few options available for accurately characterizing fluid dynamics in body systems. As such, many therapies listed above must be overly conservative in terms of total volume changes, and speed of volume changes, in order to ensure safety of the patient. In contrast, if accurate and reliable means are available for the analysis of fluid dynamics in these body systems, then more optimal therapies could be safely employed.
It is therefore apparent that an urgent need exists for improved computational medical devices and methods of use that enable the accurate characterization of dynamic body systems for enabling of improved therapies, and enhanced research into treatments.